Good move or disaster? You can now take Microsoft exams from home!

Hello Everyone,

Late last night, Microsoft Learning did a very important announcement on their Born2Learn blog! You can now take your Microsoft Certification Exams from home! At first, this seems like a good idea since a lot of people cannot take exams because testing centers are far away.  However, being able to take an exam from home might increase chances of people cheating at the exam, and therefore decreasing the value of the certification. 

Microsoft decided to combat cheatnig by implementing the following steps:

• the exam is administered by a remote proctor who will supervise you via webcam and microphone while you take your test.
• You’ll be asked to empty your pockets while on camera, provide a close-up on your ears so you can prove you’re not wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, do a visual sweep of your desk and the room…  all things you’d expect a proctor to check if they were there in the room with you. If you ensure that all of the requirements are met before you check in for your exam, the whole check-in process should only take about ten to fifteen minutes. If you have as many Bruce Springsteen posters on your office wall as I do, add another five minutes for the proctor to inspect them all for hidden notes.

• You’ll be recorded—both video and audio—for the duration of the exam.

• You can’t take notes during the exam.

• You can’t eat, drink, or chew gum while you take the exam.

• You can’t take a break—for any reason. Including biological ones.

In theory it all seems well, however Microsoft didn’t specify if the proctor is able to see your second screen, or stuff on your desktop! 

The announcement ends with this line:

“And now if you’ll excuse me, I have an exam to take, and I need to go put on my Microsoft Certified Pajamas”

And I realized, Microsoft never included any dress code for taking the certification online….. I don’t wanna know what your lucky pijama looks like :P. 

Oh yeah, and the last note is that it’s still in beta and only available for US residents at the moment. 

What do you think about the move, is it a good move by Microsoft and you wish to see it in production all over the world , or a bad move that decreases certification value?

Personal side note: 

Microsoft wants more testing centers close to people, however it takes away business of existing testing centers by stealing away their clients?  How does this work? Also, do you think online training + online exam will kill the Microsoft Certified Trainer industry and in-person bootcamps or MOCs at MS Learning partners will slowly die?